City schools plead for state funding

City Springs Elementary School gravely in need of repair

Thousands of demonstrators from Baltimore City descended upon Annapolis to take part in a rally at Lawyer's Mall pushing for state funding to help fix up the city's schools, with one school especially hoping for change.

City Springs Elementary School has great kids and teachers. They are trying to do great things in a building that is out of date, with inadequate space and equipment.

"When children come to school in a facility that is old and in need of repair and replacement, and you compare that to children who are going to school every day in a brand new modern facility, I think that, of course, the children attending the modern facility have an advantage," City Springs School Principal Rhonda Richetta said.

Richetta showed 11 News her facility. Music classes are held on the auditorium stage because there is no classroom for music. Auditorium chairs are falling apart.

The pipes in the bathroom are continually breaking and leaking. Counselors use the hallway as a classroom because there is no office space for them. One stairwell was turned into an office.

"The environment sometimes is not conducive to learning because of the facility problems like the lack of air conditioning or not having appropriate space to work in," Richetta said.

The school opened in 1968 and has an antiquated fire-alarm system.

"If something happens and the alarm goes off -- if the child pulls the fire alarm, for example -- I have no way of knowing which pull station was pulled, so we have to run around the building and try to find which one was pulled, and sometimes that takes a while," Richetta said.

Students are then left standing out in the rain and cold.

Also, when it's time to play, the space is insufficient.

"There's uneven blacktop, and there's really not any grass. They play football on concrete," Richetta said.

Richetta, like many other educators and parents, has a long wish list and wants the Legislature to act in favor of the children.

"I want them to know that we need new facilities in Baltimore City. I want them to pass the bill so we can have that, and our children deserve that," Richetta said.